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Human Runes
The Runic alphabet was the primarily writing system for the writing of earlier Human languages. Although its origins are unknown, they are most definetely tied to that of the Early High Elven alphabet, as most letters standing for the same sound have the exact same meaning. Proto-Human The most primitive variant of the Runic alphabet, it was lacking in many features - there was no space or interpunct, long and short vowels weren't distinguished, close vowels and semivowels weren't dinstinguished, leading to several confusions... * 「iu」 have stood for /juː/, /ju/ and /iu̯/ * 「ui」 have stood for /wiː/, /wi/ and /ui̯/ This meant that several minimal pairs weren't even distingusihed at all in writing. Sometimes, vowels weren't even written out at all to begin with, /kirɑz/ being written as 「krz」. Old Etrandish Etrand before Corlagon was a land of illiteracy, and this is also respected in their crude writing - the various innovations that improved writing in Hulra (word-separating interpunct, vowel length distinction, vowel-semivowel distinction) did not spread to Etrand, which coincided with the fact that written records remained very sparse. Therefore, just like in Proto-Human, no distinction was made between /i/ and /j/, /u/ and /w/ in writing, there was no spacing, and no distinction between short and long vowels. To make matters worse, now several letters represented multiple sounds, and obsolete combinations were still used, for example: * both /k/ and /t͡ʃ/ written as 「c」. Usually, /t͡ʃ/ was written as「ce」or 「ci」 before back vowels, but not always. * /g ɣ d͡ʒ/ were all written as「g」, which was also used for /j/ in several environments. ** Usually, /d͡ʒ j/ were written as「ge」or 「gi」 before back vowels, but not always. ** /d͡ʒ/ was also written as「cg」, 「dg」 or「gg」medially, to better distinguish from /j/ *** The usage of 「dg」 has carried on into Middle Etrandish and even Current Etrandish * The fronted /æ ø y/ were usually not distinguished from /ɑ o u/ *「ai」was used for /ɑː/, even though it was no longer a dipthhong * Even though separate letters did exist for /e/ and /o/, they were sometimes written as 「i」 and 「u」 instead of 「e」 and 「o」. The digraph 「sc」 was used for /ʃ/ Old Hulran Around 800, the people of Hulra have introduced several innovations that have helped to improve their writing system: * Distinction between close vowels and semivowels in writing * Vowel length distinction by doubling letters for long vowels * Usage of interpunct to separate words The palatal /t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ɕ/ did not have dedicated letters - they were represented by the digraphs 「tj dj sj」. The diphthongs /ie̯ uo̯/ were written 「ie uo」. Late Hulran Just like in its predecessor, the palatal /t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ ʃ/ were represented by the digraphs 「tj dj sj」. Out of the foreign sounds found in loanwords only, only the unaspirated /k~g/ had it's (multiple) ways of representation -「gg」, 「gk」and 「kg」. The foreign vowels /ʊ/ and /u/ were not distinguished from /o/ and /y/ in writing, and may have been even pronounced as such. The vowels /ɛː ɔː/ were written as 「ae ao」. The earlier appeared only after /j t͡ʃʰ t͡ʃ~d͡ʒ ʃ/, the latter only before /l r/. The diphthongs /iə̯ uə̯/ were written 「ie oe」. Input * Template:HmnRns: generic writing in Human runes * Template:PRT: writing in Proto-Human * Template:OET: writing in Old Etrandish * Template:OERT: writing in Old Hulran * Template:LERT: writing in Late hulran Category:Writing systems of Artograch